Riverbrian

We will never agree on this, and I've made my points. Any more comments are just us talking past each other. You are probably right... we may never agree on this but we are not talking past each other. Regardless, you and I can stop the discussion if you'd like but I will continue on using your points to express my thoughts to others. Never call them up! Never trade them! This is an extreme response and also impossible for teams to execute. The CBA states that you will have to place them on the 40 man roster eventually or expose them to the rule 5 draft. Once placed on the 40 man roster, the CBA states that they must be eventually placed on the 25 man roster or exposed to waivers. There is quite a bit of difference between delaying being placed on the 40 man roster and never calling them up. As for never trading them... prospects are traded all the time. If the Twins get into contention. They might be fielding some offers for Gordon from the Rangers, Reds or Pirates. If they are not in contention... they might trade Dozier and THEN call up Gordon. I'd rather they wait to set up for a stronger 2019 but Jorgenswest was right when he laid out the alternatives. Vlad isn't even twenty, and will be a superstar. There is zero they have in common. At no point did I say that Vlad and Gordon have anything in common... other than suggest... the Blue Jays gained an extra year of control by waiting when the Twins didn't. I was loosely implying that the Jays will be considering Service Time when they decide to call up Vlad... just like the Braves did with Acuna, Bryant with the Cubs, Torres with the Yankees and every single minor league prospect not named Jason Heyward. The twins have a window coming now or soon. I believe the window should be open right now and I'm hopeful that it lasts a while with the Starting Pitching depth that we currently have. I'm hoping that 2018 taught the front office a lesson that they need to consider depth a little bit more when crafting a roster to support that starting pitching depth. I think we are better off with Gordon as a depth piece than we are with Petit as a depth piece. Hand the job to Gordon and he fails or gets hurt (He might not) and you got to go to AAAA guy like we are doing this year. Hand the job to Asdrubal Cabrera or someone and he fails or gets hurt... Now you got Gordon (added to the 40 man roster in the off season) to replace him and saving service time. If you want Gordon now... Petit is the type of guy who is handcuffed to him in 2019 if he is successful. The twins somehow have a great farm system, but we should keep the prospects down, because they'll fail. Such a defeatist attitude. I'm not declaring that they WILL fail. I'm saying that if they do and they do often... We are back rummaging through the scrap heap to replace them because we promoted our safety net too soon and lost a year of service time in the process. 2019 is worse and 2025 is worse because you rushed a guy when all you had to do is what every single major league team does.

Every prospect down on the farm... We can't help assuming that they will play like we think they will play. How many times has Lucy taken the football away from you Charlie Brown?

Then everybody gets all excited thinking that the SS (or 2B) spot is solved forever and during the off-season the front office thinks that it has Polanco and Gordon to man the infield spots and they let Dozier and Escobar sign elsewhere and they don't worry about trading for or signing any middle infield replacements. Then after Gordon is handed the job with all our hopes and dreams attached to it... He spends April and May of 2019 hitting .156/.183/.383. The Twins then send him back down to Rochester to fix it and they bring back Adrianaza with a current 2019 slash line of .238/.302/.683. BTW... Adrianaza is available to us on waivers because he was just released by the Blue Jays to make room for Vlad Jr. who they got an extra year of service time out of by waiting until May 2019. Meanwhile... Gordon goes back down to Rochester... works on some things and goes through some peaks and valleys and everybody here is screaming again: "I've had enough Adrianaza" but now the Twins have learned their lesson... They are not going to call Gordon back up until necessary because he struggled really bad. Thank God they signed Brett Lawrie to a minor league contract that he can opt out of if he isn't called up by June 1. Brett is doing OK in AAA so they call him up and release Tyler Jay from the 40 man to give him a spot. Now you've done nothing to help 2018 because we had to trade Dozier because we were out of contention and Gordon needed a place to play... and you've started 2019 with a big hole that Adrianaza and Lawrie have to fill and they do so unsatisfactorily. As the years go by... Gordon does work himself into a productive role on the 25 man roster. He has a couple of average years with a variety of injuries and he finally makes the all-star team in 2024 and he signs as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves the following season. With my plan... Gordon starts 2019 down on the farm... We sign a major league ready SS (or 2B) and have Gordon as a safety net in case Polanco breaks his leg diving into the 2nd row on a foul pop. We gain the year of control and when Gordon comes up to play... he isn't expected to save us.

You are assuming that he is going to come up and play like you think he will play. What if he doesn't?

We have been burned enough times rushing the next big thing. We have burned enough service time with well below average play waiting for our future superstars to be productive. The last thing I want to see is a 2019 25 man roster that COUNTS on Nick Gordon to be starting anywhere and productive with no reasonable plan B safety net in case he struggles hard. We've been down this path with Hicks and Buxton and nearly everyone with no safety net and we have all seen the truck sized hole it creates when it follows the same path that nearly everyone has taken. Stash him in AAA to start 2019 and make him the 1st man up after the 1st injury. Once he arrives, play him, let him earn the job at the major league level. If he grabs it with both hands... Hooray for us all. If he doesn't grab it with both hands... we ain't left holding the spillage.

Nick Gordon: I'm doing everything possible to not place him on the 40 man roster until he HAS TO go on the 40 man roster next year. I'm going to start him in the minors in 2019 and call him up when a middle infielder goes down with an injury which will happen but I am not rushing him up this year unless all other considerations are exhausted.

I'm willing to pay the price... I'm not willing to pay THAT price for a catcher. I don't know what the price tag will be... I just assume it will be real high based on what it cost to acquire LuCroy and what it cost to acquire Avila and all the other Catcher trades. This is where the madness has to end. Catchers typically play around 100 to 115 games a year. Injuries, day games after night games and other factors, typically limits how often they are in the lineup. Good hitting catchers are pretty rare but you also have to compare the good hitting catcher to other catchers in order to consider them good hitting. Realmuto will compare favorably to Jason Castro in terms of production and playing time but he won't compare very well to Marcell Ozuna. Yet I think it is quite possible that it will cost you more to get Realmuto due to position scarcity. If that is the case... I'd rather they go get Ozuna for less and enjoy more production. Catchers... Develop your own. Don't over pay for them. I want Aaron Hicks back.

My wife is the one who usually does the 100+ page assessments. I think we both agree that there is nuance to the decision making process so it probably won't be productive to discuss this on the extreme side of positions. I'll assume that you wouldn't refuse to reasonably upgrade a contender and ask that you don't assume that I would trade our top ten prospects without a care. Personally, I'm not trading Royce Lewis for Realmuto but that position has more to do with the position scarcity price tag than the Yankees. It's the "On Par" stuff that you and I will disagree about. I've seen David Freese make the Cardinals "On Par" all by himself for a well timed 18 game stretch. I'll always be like a rhino around a campfire when anyone suggests the wall can't be climbed.

Most of the constant themes are matched by counter constant themes. I agree with you that management have to run organizations different than we run our fantasy baseball team and Thank God they do... but If I'm a voting member of the board you described and the General Manager breaks out the power point, using Las Vegas Odds, run differential, total payroll or the words of Ken Rosenthal. Whatever slides in his presentation that he comes up with as supporting evidence to declare that our team who just made the playoff has no chance against the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros. He is just going to get me to call for an immediate vote of no-confidence and waiting for the second that is sure to come. While many on this board are conveniently forgetting the deals they advocated that turned out to be disasters. Declaring the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros as unbeatable requires some convenient forgetting of the many playoff upsets that occur almost every year.

You can't look at the board like it is a single voice. It never has been.

My idea is a little off the wall. Instead of trading Sano and Buxton out of frustration at the low end of their potential value. How about we just keep them on the roster and manage the expectation that they are the pair to lead us to the promised land until they play like they are the pair to lead us to the promised land. They are still cheap... Keep Sano as a 3B/1B and make him compete against a 3B and 1B with talent for playing time. Make him earn it... make them all earn it. Keep Buxton as an OF with Kepler and Rosario but bring in someone better than Grossman to compete with all 3 of them for playing time. Make Buxton earn every day playing time by actual performance instead of what you think or hope his performance should be.

I understand that you are using the Vegas Odds to make a broader point about there is a time to sell and a time to buy. But... If we can just argue that any team can get hot... Personally, It's all I need. The premise only looks empty because the historical precedence is obviously camouflaged or something. It isn't that any team can get hot... Any team can also get cold and it happens almost every year come playoff time and almost any sport (besides the NBA... I'm a little tired of the Warriors/Cavs). If you have a chance at reaching the playoffs don't let an empty premise get in your way... you go for it. With that said... I'm not advocating that the Twins go on a buying spree right now. But... if they are 3 games behind Cleveland after the All-Star Break. I'd hate to see the front office stand pat because they are scared of Boston, New York and Houston. I don't want my front offices run on that type of hubris or arrogance. I want my front offices ready to support a rising tide even if they don't understand why it's rising.

I believe it was 2012 when I arrived here. This is my last game thread post. It's a 1-1 Tie game in 13th Inning. I really can't relate to what you guys are so pissed off about. But have at it. I give up... it's a lost cause.

Nothing but curve balls.

You're Done.

BRILLIANT STRATEGY!!!

3-0 to a guy trying to bunt in the major leagues... I admit... is very hard to explain.

Well now I'm going to Arby's Thanks a lot

When sacrificing you get yourself set to get the bunt down. When bunting for a hit. Then you try the element of surprise.

Not really

Gibson is thinking. I threw 7 innings of shut out ball and no W.

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I used to be a terrible bowler but I'm on a hot streak now. I just used Math to correct my problems. The Lane is 3 feet 6 inches wide so I'm now using a 3 foot wide bowling ball. The ball doesn't fit in the gutters any more and it's a strike every time.

GLORM!!! Good to see you... There's a Cold One Waiting for you Now you type: "I know and if she calls... Tell her I'm not here".

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